


You and Me, Baby, We're Timeless

by arynna



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Everyone Is Gay, F/F, F/M, Femslash, House Potter, Lesbian Character, Lesbian Character of Color, Lesbian Characters, M/M, Marauders Friendship, Marauders era, No Lesbians Die, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Time Travelling Lesbians, Time Turner, everyone gets a redemption arc, family bonds, femmeslash, soul bonds, time turner fix-it, time-travel-fix-it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-03-14
Packaged: 2019-03-27 02:52:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13871547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arynna/pseuds/arynna
Summary: When Hermione and Harry accidentally seal their sibling bond, they have no idea what's about to happen next. A mysterious letter containing a time-turner whisks Hermione away before she can even begin to unravel the mystery that the crest of House Potter appearing on her wrist brings.Having been transported back to 1971, Hermione finds herself faced with the prospect of changing the past--At great potential cost to her future. When she starts to fall for Lily Evans, she wonders if it's all worth it in the end.A/N: 4/27/18: Not abandoned! I broke my leg [resulting in three painful surgeries] on 3/25 and have spent the last 6 weeks in hospital/cast. Updates to resume in August 2018!





	1. Chapter 1

**Autumn, 1998**  
The aftermath of the war was gritty. The dirt, sweat, and tears clung to your skin, never quite coming away clean in the shower. While many struggled to piece their post-war lives back together, Hermione focused on working her way up the ladder at the Ministry, finding a place for herself in the Department of Mysteries. Earlier that Summer, Harry and Ginny shocked everyone by ending their relationship just as suddenly as they'd decided on rekindling it, though Hermione was the least surprised out of their 'core' group of friends to hear the news. She was convinced the pair of them would figure themselves out in time...Just as she had.  
      “Harry. Honestly, you’d think you live here with the way I find you’ve let yourself in every time I come home.” Hermione chuckled, locking the door to her flat behind her as she took in the sight of her best friend perched in her bay window seat, eating the last of her biscuits.  
      “Coul’ do, ‘Mione,” Harry muttered around a mouthful of biscuit, “Wouldn’ be so bad. Not like we need to worry ‘bout how much rent costs,” he said with a shrug. Hermione was grateful Ron wasn’t there for Harry’s off-the-cuff statement about money. Even as a part of the ‘Golden Trio’ lavished with the rewards that went along with it, money was still a sore spot with Ronald.   
         “Oh yes, quite. It’s rather like living with a younger brother, honestly. You steal my biscuits, and scare away my potential partners.”  
         “What potential partners?” he said, vanishing the empty biscuit container.  
          She blushed, looking down. There had been a very pretty new Auror trainee skulking around the Department recently, though Hermione knew better than to talk to her.  She hadn’t yet come out per se, though she figured now was as good a time as any.  
         “She’s very pretty, actually. I would get her name, but I never manage to see her outside of the office. Even then, it wouldn’t last. It’s not like I can talk about my work. I’d have to meet someone that was all right with that, and I bloody well haven’t yet.”  
        “She…??” Harry had frozen midway through rummaging for the cabinet for more biscuits.  
        “I’m a lesbian, Harry. That’s why Krum and Ron didn’t work out.” she said, lowering herself into a chair at her tiny kitchenette.  
        “Oh. Well. That’s fine, ‘Mione. Tell you the truth, I’m bisexual, myself. Glad we got that out of the way. Don’t uh...Don’t tell Ron though. I think he’d go a bit spare, and I don’t have the energy to deal with him right now.” Harry said with a deep sigh, as if he had been carrying the weight of that secret around for years. When he looked at her, his green eyes shone with happiness. She wondered how long he’d wanted to tell someone, anyone, the truth of it all. If it was as long as she’d been waiting, she understood his expression all too well.  
         “I won’t tell him.” she said, standing up to pull Harry into a warm embrace as he turned to leave.  
She barely caught his next question over the sound of her owl tapping at the window incessantly. She let Hermes in absentmindedly, Crookshanks watching from the countertop with disdain.  
         “Did you mean what you said, about me being like your brother? I think I’d like that. We’d be family. Yeah. I’d bloody like that a lot. You’d make a great sister. I mean, I already feel like we are.”  
          "Oh, Harry,” she held him a bit tighter, “I’d say we’re family already, too."  
  
          Neither of them expected their magic to flare at that exact moment, light blazing through the small kitchen, blinding and deafening them to anyone but one another. When they were both able to breathe again, Hermione glanced at her wrist from where her arm had been resting on Harry’s shoulder. He was doing the same. Her right wrist and his left both sported tiny lions, their manes shifting through shades of gold. When they stood still, a family crest appeared behind them. There was no doubt to Hermione, who had read _Hogwarts: A History_ cover-to-cover a hundred times or more, that it was the crest of House Potter.

       “W-What _are_ they?” Harry asked, poking at his olive skin over the mark experimentally. It didn’t seem to hurt him. Hermione did the same to her own brown skin, expecting it to sting like a fresh tattoo. Thankfully, it did not.

      “Harry, I think we just sealed a sibling bond. Wish granted.” she said. His eyes widened even as he smiled at her. She could tell he was also wondering what it meant. Her brain was screaming at her to start researching this immediately. Harry must have caught on, because he winked at her cheekily before disapparating.

      “Prat.” she said to her empty kitchen, unfurling the letter Hermes had brought her. Into her palm dropped an elaborate silver time turner. She barely had time to read its attached letter before everything started spinning. It was written in handwriting that was vaguely familiar, as if she’d seen it before.

_It’s time to come home, love. I hope you can forgive me._

     Hermione almost couldn’t believe it when she felt the familiar tug behind her navel, and the feeling of flying backward at a speed no human should ever get used to. When she landed, she promptly was sick. Taking stock of her surroundings, she realized she was in an abandoned classroom. She was at Hogwarts. A whole, unravaged, entirely unscarred by war, Hogwarts. Hermione sank to her knees, overwhelmed with the combined sense of loss and potential before her.

       After a few moments to take stock of her situation, she knew she had to find the Headmaster. A lifetime of dealing with Dumbledore’s manipulations made her wonder if she could, perhaps, appeal to Albus’s sense of guilt about the whole thing. She would rather have him as an ally, wherever this was...Than to have him as an enemy. Even if they were at best cordial, wherever, whenever she was--It would be best to have the Order on her side. She was a Potter now, she supposed. If Albus wouldn’t help the Potters in this timeline, bent on sacrificing them for the ‘Greater Good,’ she was damn well going to make sure the entire wizarding world knew about it--She’d let them take him down without batting an eyelash.

      She didn’t notice the lion crest on her wrist puff up with pride at her train of thought.


	2. Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Having arrived back in 1971 due to a charmed time-turner-turned portkey written in handwriting she could have *sworn* she recognized, Hermione has a little chat with someone about her plans for the future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huge thanks to my beta/CP Kaytlyn :D Without her giving this chapter the attention it deserves, I'd be forever confusing my tenses. 
> 
> As a note, we're hitting full AU/Time-Travel time in this chapter. Nothing from here on out is likely even remotely canon-compliant, save for the fact that there's Horcruxes, but they'll be destroyed much sooner than in canon. 
> 
> Huge thanks to everyone reading/commenting/following this. It means a lot!! 
> 
> For those that asked, I'm hoping to get this up on FF.Net tomorrow after work, but it might take a bit. Hang in there. I'll get it on there eventually.

Time itself was the nature of her work as an Unspeakable. There was a soothing quality to be found in making exact arithmancy calculations, or cataloging ancient runes from a grimoire no one had seen in hundreds of years. That being said, she never thought that the work she was doing in her department would actually _go_ anywhere, as much as she’d loved it. That was what had surprised her the most about the portkey-turned-timeturner. Not the fact that it existed, more the fact that someone, somewhere, had actually figured out a way to combine the two.  
  
_Leave it to the Ministry to barely tell their employees what their job is until they’ve been subject to Merlin-knows-What sort of portkey!_  
  
She huffed indignantly to herself, a small part of her more than a little annoyed it hadn't been  _her_ who discovered how to merge the magical properties of a time turner and a portkey.   
  
Tied up in her own self-absorbed mix of shock and envy, she didn't notice the figure blocking the doorway until she'd almost plowed into her. The figure was feminine in aura, with hair and skin that looked like the night sky. Her irises were dotted with stars, a smirk spreading across her face.

_“Not so fast, Hermione Granger. Don’t you want to know where you are? **When** you are?” _

“Of course, and who you are would be a bloody good addition to that information, thank you.” Hermione added, crossing her arms over her chest.

_“I am a physical manifestation of time itself. Consider yourself on… an alternate course. This is the fruit of your labours in the Department of Mysteries, made reality. If I wish it, of course. From now on, whatever happened in your original timeline is irrelevant. I am aware humans say ‘You must never meddle with time’. However--I **am** Time and I make the rules. You, Hermione, can meddle. If you do not, there will be continued war. Death. Destruction. Your world, our world, will never truly recover. Thus, our little experiment here. Throw away the textbooks, Miss Granger. I not only demand you meddle, I demand you create change. Your preconceived notions will do you no good here. Assume nothing you knew is the same here, or ever will be. You have the power to change things for the better. You’ve been brought to August 1st, 1971. From here, you will leave this room, find Albus Dumbledore, explain what you can--and stop the war before it truly starts. You will grow up alongside those you knew to be dead, so that you can give them--and yourself--a second chance at life. Do you have any questions?” _

“I--What if I make a mistake? I assume this isn’t some Muggle game, where we can restart and try again?”

_“If I feel you have made a truly incorrect decision, Miss Granger, make no mistake, I **will** bring you back to your original timeline. Nothing will have changed. So, do your best not to disappoint, hmm? I have it on good authority that your Headmaster prefers ‘Fizzing Whizbees’ this time of year.” _

“I see. This was enlightening. I’ll do my best.”

Before she could blink, the figure was gone. She tucked the time-turner under her shirt, heading for the Headmaster’s office.

“Fizzing Whizbees…?” Hermione said to the gargoyle guarding the door, her tone heavy with skepticism.

When the statue moved aside, she found herself quirking a brow. She found the Headmaster deep in conversation with Minerva McGonagall. Both looked startled at her sudden appearance.

“Hello, Miss….?” Dumbledore said, peering at her from over his half-moon spectacles.

“Granger. Hermione Granger.”

“Are you here about a job application, my dear? I fear all our teaching positions have been filled.” Minerva added, taking in Hermione’s age to mean she must have been here for a job.

“N-No. Actually, I would like to request use of your Pensive, Headmaster. It will be easier to explain who I am that way.”

The Headmaster levelled a cautious glance her way. It was not common knowledge he possessed a Pensive, and the only reason Hermione knew was because of Harry’s disastrous meetings with him over the years. She fervently hoped this Albus Dumbledore was -- or could be -- different. After an exhausting hour spent reviewing her memories and getting cross-examined by both Dumbledore and McGonagall, they had come up with something of a plan.

Albus was to begin the hunt for the Horcruxes that had already been created, of course without trying on the ring this time around. McGonagall suggested that Hermione -- with the help of a De-Ageing potion -- join the incoming class of first year students, as Time had specified she was here to make drastic changes. What was more drastic than putting her in the same year as the Marauders, Lily Evans, and Severus Snape? She was unsure just how much of a change she could cause, but she was a Gryffindor, and she’d be damned if she didn’t at least try.

“Erm...Professor, where will I stay if I join the incoming class? I’ve got some Galleons in my bag, but I doubt it’s enough to last the year, nevermind seven.”

“Hogwash. You can stay with the Potters, if you’ve no objection?” Hermione shook her head no, raising her wrist to the Professor with a smirk. The crest of House Potter showcased itself proudly upon her skin, as if the lion knew which wizarding home she was heading to.

“I see. I must admit, Miss Granger, the sibling bond you had with your Harry makes this all much simpler, and in some ways, more complicated,” McGonagall said, pursing her lips as she examined the crest, adding, “Charlus and Dorea both have cousins abroad. It wouldn’t be that much of a stretch to say they’ve sent their daughter here to start her education, particularly if your ‘parents’ in this scenario are dead. Indeed! I think you’ll do well as Hermione Potter, dear. I’ll Floo Charlus now and explain the finer details. It should all be sorted within the hour.”

It was, without a doubt, one of the longest hours of Hermione’s life.


End file.
